INSTALLATION NOTES for OpenBSD/amd64 6.3
What is OpenBSD?
----------------
OpenBSD is a fully functional, multi-platform UN*X-like Operating
System based on Berkeley Networking Release 2 (Net/2) and 4.4BSD-Lite.
There are several operating systems in this family, but OpenBSD
differentiates itself by putting security and correctness first. The
OpenBSD team strives to achieve what is called a 'secure by default'
status. This means that an OpenBSD user should feel safe that their
newly installed machine will not be compromised. This 'secure by
default' goal is achieved by taking a proactive stance on security.
Since security flaws are essentially mistakes in design or implement-
ation, the OpenBSD team puts as much importance on finding and fixing
existing design flaws and implementation bugs as it does writing new
code. This means that an OpenBSD system will not only be more secure,
but it will be more stable. The source code for all critical system
components has been checked for remote-access, local-access, denial-
of-service, data destruction, and information-gathering problems.
In addition to bug fixing, OpenBSD has integrated strong cryptography
into the base system. A fully functional IPsec implementation is
provided as well as support for common protocols such as SSL and SSH.
Network filtering and monitoring tools such as packet filtering, NAT,
and bridging are also standard, as well as several routing services,
such as BGP and OSPF. For high performance demands, support for
hardware cryptography has also been added to the base system. Because
security is often seen as a tradeoff with usability, OpenBSD provides
as many security options as possible to allow the user to enjoy secure
computing without feeling burdened by it.
Because OpenBSD is from Canada, the export of Cryptography pieces
(such as OpenSSH and IPsec) to the world is not restricted.
(NOTE: OpenBSD can not be re-exported from the US once it has entered
the US. Because of this, take care NOT to get the distribution from
a mirror server in the US if you are outside of Canada and the US.)
A comprehensive list of the improvements brought by the 6.3 release
is available on the web at https://www.OpenBSD.org/63.html.
OpenBSD/amd64 runs on computers equipped with AMD Athlon64 processors.
Machines with compatible processors (such as Intel's EM64T processors)
are also supported.
Sources of OpenBSD:
-------------------
Please refer to https://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html for all the ways you may
acquire OpenBSD.
OpenBSD 6.3 Release Contents:
-----------------------------
The OpenBSD 6.3 release is organized in the following way. In the
.../6.3 directory, for each of the architectures having an OpenBSD 6.3
binary distribution, there is a sub-directory.
The amd64-specific portion of the OpenBSD 6.3 release is found in the
"amd64" subdirectory of the distribution. That subdirectory is laid
out as follows:
.../6.3/amd64/
INSTALL.amd64 Installation notes; this file.
SHA256 Output of the cksum(1) program using the option
-a sha256, usable for verification of the
correctness of downloaded files.
SHA256.sig The above file, signed with the OpenBSD signing key
for the 6.3 release, usable for verification of the
integrity of the above file, and thus of the
downloaded files.
miniroot63.fs A miniroot filesystem image to be used if you
for some reason can't or don't want to use the
ramdisk installation method.
It can be copied to a small USB key to start the install.
floppy63.fs The standard amd64 boot and installation floppy;
see below.
pxeboot amd64-specific second-stage PXE bootstrap (for
network installs); see below.
*.tgz amd64 binary distribution sets; see below.
bsd A stock GENERIC amd64 kernel which will be
installed on your system during the install.
bsd.mp A stock GENERIC.MP amd64 kernel, with support for
multiprocessor machines, which can be used instead
of the GENERIC kernel after the install.
bsd.rd A compressed RAMDISK kernel; the embedded
filesystem contains the installation tools.
Used for simple installation from a pre-existing
system.
install63.iso The amd64 boot and installation CD-ROM image,
which contains the base and X sets, so that install
or upgrade can be done without network connectivity.
install63.fs A boot and installation image which contains
the base and X sets. An install or upgrade can be
done with a USB key without network connectivity.
cd63.iso A simple bootable filesystem image consisting of the
bsd.rd installation kernel, suitable to be used
as a bootable CD-ROM image, but will require the base
and X sets be found via another media or network.
cdbr First-stage CD bootstrap (boot sector), which loads
the cdboot second-stage bootstrap. This file is
included in the cd63.iso image, and is
provided as a convenience, but will rarely be needed.
cdboot Second-stage CD bootstrap loader for non-emulation
OpenBSD El Torito CD-ROMs. It processes boot.conf
then loads the bsd.rd installation ramdisk kernel.
This file is included in the cd63.iso image,
and is provided as a convenience, but will rarely be
needed.
Bootable installation/upgrade floppy image:
The single floppy image can be copied to a floppy using rawrite.exe,
ntrw.exe, or `dd', as described later in this document.
The floppy image is a bootable install floppy which can be used
both to install and to upgrade OpenBSD to the current version.
It is also useful for maintenance and disaster recovery.
The OpenBSD/amd64 binary distribution sets contain the binaries which
comprise the OpenBSD 6.3 release for amd64 systems. There are eight
binary distribution sets. The binary distribution sets can be found in
the "amd64" subdirectory of the OpenBSD 6.3 distribution tree,
and are as follows:
base63 The OpenBSD/amd64 6.3 base binary distribution. You MUST
install this distribution set. It contains the base OpenBSD
utilities that are necessary for the system to run and be
minimally functional.
It includes shared library support, and excludes everything
described below.
[ 139.8 MB gzipped, 291.0 MB uncompressed ]
comp63 The OpenBSD/amd64 Compiler tools. All of the tools relating
to C, C++ and Objective-C are supported. This set includes
the system include files (/usr/include), the linker, the
compiler tool chain, and the various system libraries
(except the shared libraries, which are included as part of
the base set).
This set also includes the manual pages for all of the
utilities it contains, as well as the system call and library
manual pages.
[ 73.7 MB gzipped, 266.6 MB uncompressed ]
game63 This set includes the games and their manual pages.
[ 2.6 MB gzipped, 6.5 MB uncompressed ]
man63 This set includes all of the manual pages for the binaries
and other software contained in the base set.
Note that it does not include any of the manual pages
that are included in the other sets.
[ 6.9 MB gzipped, 29.9 MB uncompressed ]
xbase63 This set includes the base X distribution. This includes
programs, headers and libraries.
[ 17.5 MB gzipped, 61.2 MB uncompressed ]
xfont63 This set includes all of the X fonts.
[ 38.4 MB gzipped, 56.6 MB uncompressed ]
xserv63 This set includes all of the X servers.
[ 12.2 MB gzipped, 32.8 MB uncompressed ]
xshare63 This set includes all text files equivalent between all
architectures.
[ 4.3 MB gzipped, 28.8 MB uncompressed ]
OpenBSD System Requirements and Supported Devices:
--------------------------------------------------
OpenBSD/amd64 6.3 should work on all Athlon 64-based and
compatible designs.
OpenBSD/amd64 6.3 supports most SMP (Symmetrical MultiProcessor)
systems. To support SMP operation, a separate SMP kernel (bsd.mp)
is included with the installation file sets.
OpenBSD/amd64 6.3 supports both UEFI/GPT booting and BIOS/MBR
booting.
Please refer to the website for a full list of supported hardware.
https://www.openbsd.org/amd64.html
Verifying the OpenBSD Installation Media:
-----------------------------------------
As of OpenBSD 5.5, installations are able to verify files for the next
release. The OpenBSD 6.3 release was signed with the
/etc/signify/openbsd-63-base.pub release key.
If you have an existing OpenBSD 5.5 or higher installation, you can run
signify(1) to verify the signature and checksum. For example, run the following
to verify that the cd63.iso file was distributed by the OpenBSD team:
signify -C -p /etc/signify/openbsd-63-base.pub -x SHA256.sig cd63.iso
If you are unable to run or compile signify(1), use sha256(1) with the SHA256
file to see if a file was corrupt during the transfer.
Getting the OpenBSD System onto Useful Media:
---------------------------------------------
Installation is supported from several media types, including:
CD-ROM
FFS partitions
DOS (FAT) partitions
HTTP
If you can't (or don't want to) boot off a CD-ROM, you can use a floppy
disk (1.44MB required) or a USB key. Failing that, if your computer supports
PXE, you can prepare a server to start the install across the network, but you
will still need the install sets available on one of the above media types.
Creating a bootable CD-ROM:
First you need to get access to the OpenBSD bootable CD-ROM (ISO)
images. They can be found on one of the OpenBSD mirror servers. Two
files are available, install63.iso which contains all of
the sets needed for installation, and a smaller cd63.iso
which contains just the installer, for a network install.
Windows 7 users should be able to do this by right clicking on the
install63.iso file and clicking burn to CD.
OpenBSD users should be able to do this with the cdio command.
"cdio tao install63.iso"
Users of other operating systems should consult the
appropriate documentation.
Creating a bootable floppy disk using Windows:
First you need to get access to the OpenBSD bootable floppy
images. If you can access the distribution from the CD-ROM under
DOS, you will find the bootable disks in the 6.3/amd64
directory. Otherwise, you will have to download them from one of
the OpenBSD mirror sites, using an FTP client or a web browser.
In either case, take care to do "binary" transfers, since
these are images files and any DOS cr/lf translations or Control-z
EOF interpretations will result in corrupted transfers.
You will also need to go to the "tools" directory and grab a copy of
the ntrw.exe utility. Run it with the correct arguments like this
"ntrw :"
Note that, when installing, the boot floppy can be write-protected
(i.e. read-only).
Creating a bootable floppy disk using a Un*x-like system:
First, you will need to obtain a local copy of the bootable filesystem
image as described above. You should use the signify(1) and sha256(1)
commands to verify the integrity of the images with the SHA256.sig file
on the mirror site.
Next, use the dd(1) utility to copy the file to the floppy drive.
The command would likely be, under OpenBSD:
dd if=floppy63.fs of=/dev/rfd0c bs=36b
If you are using another operating system, you may have to adapt
this to conform to local naming conventions for the floppy and
options suitable for copying to a "raw" floppy image. The key
issue is that the device name used for the floppy *must* be one
that refers to the correct block device, not a partition or
compatibility mode, and the copy command needs to be compatible
with the requirement that writes to a raw device must be in
multiples of 512-byte blocks. The variations are endless and
beyond the scope of this document.
If you're doing this on the system you intend to boot the floppy on,
copying the floppy back to a file and doing a compare or checksum
is a good way to verify that the floppy is readable and free of
read/write errors.
Note that, when installing, the boot floppy can be write-protected
(i.e. read-only).
Creating a bootable USB key using a Un*x-like system:
Some older systems may not be able to boot from USB keys or require
changing boot priority. Check your BIOS settings if you run into
problems.
First, you will need to obtain a local copy of the bootable filesystem
image miniroot63.fs or install63.fs as described above.
You should use the signify(1) and sha256(1) commands to verify
the integrity of the images with the SHA256.sig file on the mirror site.
Next, use the dd(1) utility to copy the file to the USB storage device.
The command would likely be, under OpenBSD:
dd if=miniroot63.fs of=/dev/rsdNc bs=1m
where N is the device number. You can find the correct device number
by checking dmesg(8) when inserting the media.
If you are using another operating system, you may have to adapt
this to conform to local naming conventions for the USB key and
options suitable for copying to a "raw" disk image. The key
issue is that the device name used for the USB key *must* be one
that refers to the correct block device, not a partition or
compatibility mode, and the copy command needs to be compatible
with the requirement that writes to a raw device must be in
multiples of 512-byte blocks. The variations are endless and
beyond the scope of this document.
If you're doing this on the system you intend to boot the USB key on,
copying the image back to a file and doing a compare or checksum
is a good way to verify that the USB key is readable and free of
read/write errors.
Creating a PXE network bootable setup using OpenBSD or other Un*x-like system:
In order to start the install via PXE, you will need to set up a
DHCP server and a TFTP server. The details of how to do this
vary considerably, depending on the network's host. You should
refer to the relevant man pages or administrator's guide for the
host system.
The DHCP server should return "pxeboot" to amd64 clients as the
network boot program. Both pxeboot and the bsd.rd install kernel
should be copied to the TFTP server's root directory.
If you are using an OpenBSD server, you can use the supplied
dhcpd and tftpd. A sample configuration for dhcpd is given in
the pxeboot(8) man page. You can get it from the man63.tgz
distribution set, or see the copy on the OpenBSD web page. You
should also refer to dhcpd(8) and tftpd(8) for more information
on configuring them.
The steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets for installation
depend on which method of installation you choose. Some methods
require a bit of setup first that is explained below.
The installation allows installing OpenBSD directly from HTTP mirror
sites over the internet, however you must consider the speed and
reliability of your internet connection for this option. It may save
much time and frustration to download the distribution sets to a local
server or disk and perform the installation from there, rather than
directly from the internet.
If you are upgrading OpenBSD, you also have the option of installing
OpenBSD by putting the new distribution sets somewhere in your
existing file system, and using them from there. To do that, do
the following:
Place the distribution sets you wish to upgrade somewhere
in your current file system tree. At a bare minimum, you
must upgrade the "base" binary distribution, and so must
put the "base63" set somewhere in your file system. It
is recommended that you upgrade the other sets, as well.
Preparing your System for OpenBSD Installation:
-----------------------------------------------
First and foremost, before beginning the installation process, MAKE
SURE YOU HAVE A RELIABLE BACKUP of any data on your hard disk that you
wish to keep. Repartitioning your hard disk is an excellent way to
destroy important data.
If you plan to dual boot, use the other operating system's "fdisk" program
or partition editor to create at least one of the partitions to be used for
that operating system. If that operating system is already set up to use the
entire disk, you will need to make space available. Windows 7 can resize its
own system partition. In the control panel, search for "partition": this
will lead you to the system administration tool. You do not have to create an
OpenBSD partition at this time; the OpenBSD installation will give you an
opportunity to create the partition needed for OpenBSD.
Your hard disk is now prepared to have OpenBSD installed on it, and
you should proceed with the installation instructions.
Installing the OpenBSD System:
------------------------------
Installing OpenBSD is a relatively simple process. If you take your time
and are careful to read the information presented by the installer, you
shouldn't have any trouble.
There are several ways to install OpenBSD onto a disk. The easiest way,
should your computer support it, is to boot off the OpenBSD CD-ROM,
USB key, or off one of the bootable CD-ROM mini images. Otherwise, you
can boot from a 3.5" 1.44MB floppy disk if your machine has a floppy drive.
If your machine supports PXE network boots, you could try to configure a
server for a network install.
You should now be ready to install OpenBSD.
The following is a walk-through of the steps you will take while getting
OpenBSD installed on your hard disk.
The installation procedure is designed to gather as much information about
your system setup as possible at the beginning, so that no human interaction
is required as soon as the questions are over.
The order of these questions might be quite disconcerting if you are used to
other installation procedures, including older OpenBSD versions.
If any question has a default answer, it will be displayed in brackets ("[]")
after the question. If you wish to stop the installation, you may hit
Control-C at any time, but if you do, you'll have to begin the installation
process again from scratch. Using Control-Z to suspend the process may be a
better option, or at any prompt enter `!' to get a shell, from which 'exit'
will return you back to that prompt.
If you are using CD-ROM, USB key or floppy media, ensure the media is
present before starting.
Reboot the computer to begin the install. You might have to play
with your BIOS options to get the computer to boot from the
correct installation media (floppy, CD, USB key or network/PXE) rather
than from the hard disk.
If you are installing across the network with PXE, you will need
to tell pxeboot to get the bsd.rd install kernel:
boot> boot bsd.rd
It can take a while to load the kernel from a floppy, slow speed
CD-ROM drive, or across a network, most likely more than a minute.
If some action doesn't eventually happen, or the spinning cursor
has stopped and nothing further has happened, either your boot
floppy is bad or you are having hardware problems. If trying
another floppy disk doesn't help, try booting after disabling your
CPU's internal and external caches (if any). If it still doesn't
work, OpenBSD probably can't be run on your hardware. This can
probably be considered a bug, so you might want to report it. If
you do, please include as many details about your system
configuration as you can.
Once the kernel has loaded, you will be presented with the
OpenBSD kernel boot messages which contain information about
the hardware that was detected and supported by OpenBSD.
After the kernel is done initializing, you will be asked whether
you wish to do an "(I)nstall", "(U)pgrade" or an "(A)utoinstall".
Enter 'I' for a fresh install or 'U' to upgrade an existing
installation. Enter 'A' to start an unattended installation
where all of your answers are supplied in a response file (more
on that in "Preparing an unattended installation of OpenBSD").
If you are connected with a serial console, you will next be
asked for your terminal type.
You should choose the terminal type from amongst those listed.
(If your terminal type is xterm, just use vt220).
If you are connected using a glass console, you will next be
asked for your keyboard layout (the default being the US QWERTY
layout). Depending on your keyboard type, not all international
layouts may be supported; answering `?' (which, on QWERTY layouts,
is the key to the left of the right `shift' key, shifted) will
display a list of supported layouts.
(If you do not need to change the keyboard layout, just press
enter.)
The first question you will be asked is the system hostname.
Reply with the name of the system, without any domain part.
You will now be given an opportunity to configure the network.
The network configuration you enter (if any) can then be used to
do the install from another system using HTTP, and will also be
the configuration used by the system after the installation is
complete.
The install program will give you a list of network interfaces you
can configure. For each network interface you select to configure,
you will be asked for:
- the symbolic host name to use (except for the first
interface setup, which will reuse the host name entered at the
beginning of the installation).
- the IPv4 settings: address and netmask. If the IP address
should be obtained from a DHCP server, simply enter ``dhcp''
when asked for the address.
- the IPv6 settings (address, prefix length, and default router).
You may enter ``autoconf'' when asked for the address for the
interface to configure automatically via router solicitation
messages.
After all interfaces have been configured, if there have been
any IPv4 interfaces setup, you will be asked for the IPv4 default
route. This step is skipped if you only have one IPv4 interface
setup, and it is configured with DHCP.
The install program will also ask you for your DNS domain name,
and the domain name servers, unless this information has
already been obtained from a DHCP server during interface setup.
You will then be asked to enter the initial root password
of the system, twice.
Although the install program will only check that the two
passwords match, you should make sure to use a strong password.
As a minimum, the password should be at least eight characters
long and a mixture of both lower and uppercase letters, numbers
and punctuation characters.
You will then be asked whether you want to start sshd(8) by
default.
You will next be asked whether you intend to run the X Window
System on your machine. The install program needs to know
this, to change a configuration setting controlling whether
the X server will be able to access the xf86(4) driver; it
is not necessary to answer `y' to this question if you only
intend to run X client programs on a remote display.
If you answered `y' to this question, you will get asked
whether you want to start xenodm(1) on boot.
If you are installing using a serial console, and since by default,
the OpenBSD/amd64 installation will only start terminals on
the primary display device, the installation program will ask you
whether you want to also enable an additional terminal on that
line, and will allow you to select the line speed.
You will now be given the possibility to setup a user account
on the forthcoming system. This user will be added to the
`wheel' group.
Enter the desired login name, or `n' if you do not want to
add a user account at this point. Valid login names are
sequences of digits and lowercase letters, and must start
with a lowercase letter. If the login name matches this
criteria, and doesn't conflict with any of the administrative
user accounts (such as `root', `daemon' or `ftp'), you
will be prompted with the users descriptive name, as well
as its password, twice.
As for the root password earlier, the install program will only
check that the two passwords match, but you should make sure to
use a strong password here as well.
If you have chosen to setup a user account, and you had chosen
to start sshd(8) on boot, you will be asked if you want to allow
sshd(8) logins as root.
You may now be given the opportunity to configure the time zone
your system will be using (this depends on the installation
media you are using).
If the installation program skips this question, do not be
alarmed, the time zone will be configured at the end
of the installation.
The installation program will now tell you which disks it can
install on, and ask you which it should use.
Reply with the name of your root disk.
Disks on OpenBSD/amd64 are partitioned using either ``MBR''
or ``GPT'' partitioning schemes. You will need to create one
disk partition in which the OpenBSD filesystems will be created.
The installation program will ask you if you want to use the
whole disk for OpenBSD. If you don't need to or don't intend
to share the disk with other operating systems, answer `w'
here to use ``MBR'' partitioning or 'g' to use ``GPT''
partitioning. The installation program will then create a single
partition spanning the whole disk, dedicated to OpenBSD.
Otherwise, fdisk(8) will be invoked to let you to edit your
partitioning. The current partitions defined will be
displayed and you will be allowed to modify them, add new
partitions, and change which partition to boot from by default.
Note that you should make the OpenBSD partition the active
partition at least until the install has been completed.
After your OpenBSD partition has been created, dividing the
space into filesystems can follow.
The file system layout is stored in the OpenBSD disk label. Each
file system is stored in its own ``disk label partition'', which
is a subdivision of the OpenBSD disk partition you created. In
the text below ``partition'' refers to these subdivisions.
You will be shown a default layout with the recommended file
systems. This default layout is based on the disk size.
You will be given the choice of accepting the proposed layout,
editing it, or creating your own custom layout. These
last two choices will invoke the disklabel(8) interactive editor,
allowing you to create your desired layout.
Within the editor, you will see at least a 'c' partition of
fstype 'unused'. This represents the whole disk and cannot be
modified.
If you have DOS or Linux partitions defined on the disk, these
will usually show up as partition 'i', 'j' and so on.
You must create partition 'a' as a native OpenBSD partition, i.e.
one with "4.2BSD" as the fstype, to hold the root file system.
In addition to partition 'a' you should create partition 'b' with
fstype "swap", and native OpenBSD partitions to hold separate file
systems such as /usr, /tmp, /var, and /home.
You will need to provide a mount point for all partitions you
define. Partitions without mount points, or not of the
4.2BSD fstype, will neither be formatted nor mounted during the
installation.
For quick help while in the interactive editor, enter '?'. The
`z' command (which deletes all partitions and starts with a
clean label), the `A' command (which performs the automatic
partition layout) and the `n' command (to change mount points)
are of particular interest.
Although the partitions position and size are written in exact
sector values, you do not need a calculator to create your
partitions! Human-friendly units can be specified by adding `k',
`m' or `g' after any numbers to have them converted to kilobytes,
megabytes or gigabytes. Or you may specify a percentage of the
disk size using `%' as the suffix.
Enter 'M' to view the entire manual page (see the info on the
``-E'' flag). To exit the editor enter 'q'.
After the layout has been saved, new filesystems will be
created on all partitions with mount points.
This will DESTROY ALL EXISTING DATA on those partitions.
After configuring your root disk, the installer will
return to the list of available disks to configure.
You can choose the other disks to use with OpenBSD in
any order, and will get to setup their layout similarly
to the root disk above. However, for non-root disks,
you will not be proposed a default partition layout.
When all your disks are configured, simply hit return
at the disk prompt.
After these preparatory steps have been completed, you will be
able to extract the distribution sets onto your system. There
are several install methods supported:
HTTP, CD-ROM, or a local disk partition.
To install via HTTP:
To begin an HTTP install you will need the following
pieces of information:
1) Proxy server URL if you are using a URL-based HTTP
proxy (squid, CERN FTP, Apache 1.2 or higher).
You need to define a proxy if you are behind a
firewall that blocks outgoing HTTP connections
(assuming you have a proxy available to use).
2) The IP address (or hostname if you configured
DNS servers earlier in the install) of an HTTP
server carrying the OpenBSD 6.3 distribution.
The installation program will try to fetch a list
of such servers; depending on your network settings,
this might fail. If the list could be fetched, it
will be displayed, and you can choose an entry from
the list (the first entries are expected to be the
closest mirrors to your location).
3) The directory holding the distribution sets.
Then refer to the section named "installation set selection"
below.
To install from CD-ROM:
When installing from a CD-ROM, you will be asked which
device holds the distribution sets. This will typically
be "cd0". If there is more than one partition on the
CD-ROM, you will be asked which partition the distribution
is to be loaded from. This is normally partition "a".
You will also have to provide the relative path to the
directory on the CD-ROM which holds the distribution, for
the amd64 this is "6.3/amd64".
Then refer to the section named "installation set selection"
below.
To install from a local disk partition:
When installing from a local disk partition, you will
first have to identify which disk holds the distribution
sets.
This is normally "wdN" or "sdN", where N is a number.
Next you will have to identify the partition within that disk
that holds the distribution; this is a single letter between
'a' and 'p'.
You will also have to identify the type of file system
residing in the partition identified. Currently, you can
install from partitions that have been formatted as the
Berkeley fast file system (ffs) or MS-DOS.
You will also have to provide the relative path to the
directory on the file system where the distribution sets
are located. Note that this path should not be prefixed
with a '/'.
Then refer to the next section.
Installation set selection:
A list of available distribution sets found on the
given location will be listed.
You may individually select distribution sets to install,
by entering their name, or wildcards (e.g. `*.tgz' or
`base*|comp*', or `all' to select all the sets (which
is what most users will want to do).
You may also enter `abort' to deselect everything and
restart the selection from scratch, or unselect sets
by entering their name prefixed with `-' (e.g. `-x*').
It is also possible to enter an arbitrary filename and
have it treated as a file set.
When you are done selecting distribution sets, enter
`done'. The files will begin to extract.
After the files have been extracted, you will be given the choice
to select a new location from which to install distribution sets.
If there have been errors extracting the sets from the previous
location, or if some sets have been missing, this allows you to
select a better source.
Also, if the installation program complains that the distribution
sets you have been using do not match their recorded checksums, you
might want to check your installation source (although this can
happen between releases, if a snapshot is being updated on a mirror
server with newer files while you are installing).
The last thing you might need to configure, if you did not get
the chance to earlier, is the time zone your system will be using.
For this work properly, it is expected that you have installed at
least the "base63" and "bsd" distribution sets.
The installation program will then proceed to save the system
configuration, create all the device nodes needed by the installed
system, and will install bootblocks on the root disk.
On multiprocessor systems, if the bsd.mp kernel has been installed,
it will be renamed to `bsd', which is the default kernel the boot
blocks look for. The single processor kernel, `bsd', will be
available as `bsd.sp'.
Finally, you will be asked whether you would like to install
non-free firmware files (which can't be tightly integrated to
the OpenBSD system) on first boot, by invoking fw_update(8) on
the next boot.
Congratulations, you have successfully installed OpenBSD 6.3. When you
reboot into OpenBSD, you should log in as "root" at the login prompt.
You should create yourself an account and protect it and the "root"
account with good passwords.
The install program leaves root an initial mail message. We recommend
you read it, as it contains answers to basic questions you might have
about OpenBSD, such as configuring your system, installing packages,
getting more information about OpenBSD, sending in your dmesg output
and more. To do this, run
mail
and then just enter "more 1" to get the first message. You quit mail by
entering "q".
Some of the files in the OpenBSD 6.3 distribution might need to be
tailored for your site. We recommend you run:
man afterboot
which will tell you about a bunch of the files needing to be reviewed.
If you are unfamiliar with UN*X-like system administration, it's
recommended that you buy a book that discusses it.
Preparing an unattended installation of OpenBSD:
------------------------------------------------
If '(A)utoinstall' is chosen at the install prompt or if the
installation system detects that it booted from the network, and
isn't interrupted within 5 seconds, it attempts a fully-automatic
installation.
The installer runs dhclient(8) on the network interface the system
booted from, or in case of multiple interfaces it will ask which one
to use. Upon success it retrieves a response file via HTTP. If that
fails, the installer asks for the response file location which can be
either an url or a local path and retrieves the response file from
there.
The "next-server" DHCP option specifies the hostname part of the URL,
as in "http:///install.conf". The "filename" DHCP
parameter specifies the installer mode, e.g. "auto_install". On
architectures where this parameter is used for netbooting, create
a symbolic link named "auto_install" pointing to the boot program.
The response file contains lines with key/value pairs separated by
an equals sign '=', where the key is a non-ambiguous part (up to the
question mark) of the installer question, consisting of whitespace
separated words. The value is what would have been entered at the
interactive prompt. Empty lines and lines beginning with a '#'
character are ignored. The installer uses default answers in case
of missing answers.
Here is a response file example that uses a hashed password (see
encrypt(1) for more details) for root and a public ssh key for the
user that is created during the installation.
System hostname = openbsd
Password for root = $2a$14$Z4xRMg8vDpgYH...GVot3ySoj8yby
Setup a user = puffy
Password for user = *************
Public ssh key for user = ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1...g3Aqre puffy@ai
What timezone are you in = Europe/Stockholm
Location of sets = http
HTTP Server = ftp.eu.openbsd.org
The "System hostname" key above matches the following full question
asked during an interactive installation:
System hostname? (short form, e.g. 'foo')
While the installation is in progress the installer writes all output
to the file /ai.log, which is available as mail on the freshly
installed system after the initial reboot. If the installation is
successful the system will reboot automatically; otherwise, you will
be dropped back into the shell where you can look at the /ai.log file
or try again.
Upgrading a previously-installed OpenBSD System:
------------------------------------------------
Warning! Upgrades to OpenBSD 6.3 are currently only supported from the
immediately previous release. The upgrade process will also work with older
releases, but might not execute some migration tasks that would be necessary
for a proper upgrade.
The best solution, whenever possible, is to backup your data and reinstall
from scratch. As a minimum, if the toolchain (the ``comp'' set) was installed,
you should remove all files within /usr/include before attempting to
upgrade.
To upgrade OpenBSD 6.3 from a previous version, start with the general
instructions in the section "Installing OpenBSD".
Boot from the CD-ROM or an installation floppy as you would do for
a new installation.
When prompted, select the (U)pgrade option rather than the (I)nstall
option at the prompt in the install process.
You will be presented with a welcome message, and depending on how you are
connected to the system, you will be asked to set the terminal type or to
choose a keyboard layout.
The upgrade script will ask you for the existing root partition, and
will use the existing filesystems defined in /etc/fstab to install the
new system in. It will also use your existing network parameters.
From then, the upgrade procedure is very close to the installation
procedure described earlier in this document.
However, it is strongly advised that you unpack the etc.tgz and the
xetc.tgz files found in /var/sysmerge in a temporary
directory and merge changes by hand, or with the help of the sysmerge(8)
helper script, since all components of your system may not function
correctly until your files in `/etc' are updated.
Getting source code for your OpenBSD System:
--------------------------------------------
Now that your OpenBSD system is up and running, you probably want to get
access to source code so that you can recompile pieces of the system.
You can get the pieces over the internet using anonymous CVS, CVSync,
FTP or HTTP(s). For more information, see:
https://www.OpenBSD.org/anoncvs.html
https://www.OpenBSD.org/cvsync.html
https://www.OpenBSD.org/ftp.html
Using online OpenBSD documentation:
-----------------------------------
Documentation is available if you first install the manual pages
distribution set. Traditionally, the UN*X "man pages" (documentation)
are denoted by 'name(section)'. Some examples of this are
intro(1),
man(1),
apropos(1),
passwd(1),
passwd(5) and
afterboot(8).
The section numbers group the topics into several categories, but three
are of primary interest: user commands are in section 1, file formats
are in section 5, and administrative information is in section 8.
The 'man' command is used to view the documentation on a topic, and is
started by entering 'man [section] topic'. The brackets [] around the
section should not be entered, but rather indicate that the section is
optional. If you don't ask for a particular section, the topic with the
least-numbered section name will be displayed. For instance, after
logging in, enter
man passwd
to read the documentation for passwd(1). To view the documentation for
passwd(5), enter
man 5 passwd
instead.
If you are unsure of what man page you are looking for, enter
apropos subject-word
where "subject-word" is your topic of interest; a list of possibly
related man pages will be displayed.
Adding third party software; ``packages'' and ``ports'':
--------------------------------------------------------
As complete as your OpenBSD system is, you may want to add any of several
excellent third party software applications. There are several ways to do
this. You can:
1) Use the OpenBSD ``package'' collection to grab a pre-compiled
and tested version of the application for your hardware.
2) Use the OpenBSD ``ports'' collection to automatically get any
needed source file, apply any required patches, create the
application, and install it for you.
3) Obtain the source code and build the application based
upon whatever installation procedures are provided with the
application.
Instructions for installing applications from the various sources using
the different installation methods follow.
You should also refer to the packages(7) manual page.
Installing applications from the ftp.OpenBSD.org package collection:
All available packages for your architecture have been placed on
ftp.OpenBSD.org in the directory pub/OpenBSD/6.3/packages/amd64/
You may want to peruse this to see what packages are available. The
packages are also on the OpenBSD mirror sites. See
https://www.OpenBSD.org/ftp.html
for a list of current mirror sites.
Installation of a package is very easy.
1) become the superuser (root)
2) use the ``pkg_add'' command to install the software
``pkg_add'' is smart enough to know how to download the software
from the OpenBSD HTTP server. Example:
$ su
Password:
# pkg_add \
http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/6.3/packages/amd64/emacs-21.4p32.tgz
Installing applications from the OpenBSD ports collection:
See https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq15.html#Ports for current
instructions on obtaining and installing OpenBSD ports.
You should also refer to the ports(7) manual page.
Installing other applications:
If an OpenBSD package or port does not exist for an application
you're pretty much on your own. The first thing to do is ask
if anyone is working on a port -- there may
be one in progress. If no such port exists, you might want to
look at the FreeBSD ports or NetBSD pkgsrc for inspiration.
If you can't find an existing port, try to make your own and
feed it back to OpenBSD. That's how our ports collection grows.
Some details can be found in the OpenBSD Porter's Handbook at
https://www.openbsd.org/faq/ports/
with more help coming from the mailing list, .
Administrivia:
--------------
There are various mailing lists available via the mailing list
server at . To get help on using the mailing
list server, send mail to that address with an empty body, and it will
reply with instructions.
More information about the various OpenBSD mailing list and proper
netiquette is available at
https://www.OpenBSD.org/mail.html
To report bugs, use the 'sendbug' command shipped with OpenBSD,
and fill in as much information about the problem as you can. Good
bug reports include lots of details. Additionally, bug reports can
be sent by mail to:
bugs@OpenBSD.org
As a favor, please avoid mailing huge documents or files to the
mailing lists. Instead, put the material you would have sent on
a web server, then mail the appropriate list about it, or if
you'd rather not do that, mail the list saying you'll send the data
to those who want it.
For more information about reporting bugs, see
https://www.OpenBSD.org/report.html